Night aboard Hammersley
by CUtopia
Summary: Some people aboard Hammersley experience that they may be at their workplace, but that some situations are quite not that work related...
1. Kate

Something that haunted through my mind, just some random stuff :D

Kate McGregor yawned extensively as she left the small bath room that belonged to her cabin. She had passed a hard day of work and just wanted to fall into her rack and sleep. She straightened her top and stretched a bit, as there was a knock on her door.

"Come in!"

She folded back her blanket as she heard the door open and close. She turned and saw her CO standing in front of her. He stroke through his hair with one hand and looked kind of nervous.

"Ahm, hi, Kate..."

"Hi, boss! What is the matter?"

"I... well, I just wanted to make sure you´re okay... This control at the Indonesian vessel – you got hit pretty hard! How does your shoulder feel?"

He took a step forward and carefully touched her naked shoulder what made her twitch.

"Oh, I´m sorry..."

"Don´t mind...", Kate wanted to complain, but Mike objected.

"No, it´s not okay, I hurt you... I´ll make it better!"

The action that followed nearly made Kate jump off the floor. Mike bend over a bit and his lips touched the slightly bruised skin of Kate´s shoulder. He kissed his way over her whole shoulder while Kate was frozen. She was not really able to understand what was going on, but she could not prevent a small sigh to leave her lips.

"Kate... I need to tell you something... I should have confessed you this earlier, but now I am ready to tell you this, I can no longer deny my feelings..."

His eyes with hers and cupped her face, then he said:"I still love you, Kate and every time you´re near me I have to pull all my will together to resist the urge to touch you... But now I can´t stand it anymore!"

And before she could react his hot mouth had was meeting hers with the intensity of a nuclear blast. He shoved her to her rack, his hands touching every inch of bare skin they could reach. As soon as her back met the mattress she had lost the ability to think. She forget where she was, how thin the walls of the Hammersley could be, she even forget who she was. All she knew was that his touches made old memories come alive, memories of the nights they had spent together when they had a affair. She wrapped her legs around his hips and closed her eyes as his mouth and hands wandered downwards...

"Kate! Kate!"

"What?"

Within a second Kate was sitting upright in her rack and hit her head at the downside of Nikki´s rack, totally confused. She touched the aching spot and turned her head. Her room mate was looking down on her from her rack above, grinning widely.

"I just wanted to know if you´re okay."

"What did you mean?"

"Ahm... you were moaning in sleep like... hrm... you were enjoying something. And you murmured a name and that he shall "give you what you missed in the past years"..."

Kate swallowed hard and felt how her face turned red and her cheeks glowed. She did not know what she should answer to that, so she remained silent, but Nikki seemed to be extremely curious and also amused about the situation.

"Kate, you don´t need to be ashamed by the fact that you just had an adult dream..."

Kate rolled her eyes and just wanted to tell Nikki that she did not feel the need to deepen this topic, but then the navigator continued to speak:"... obviously about our CO!"

"WHAT?!"

"Kate, you moaned "Mike", I have really good ears", Nikki laughed. "You know what I am asking myself?"

"What?", Kate asked for the forth time, burying her face into her hands. This was pure embarrassment and she wished the floor would open up so she could disappear in some hole.

"You two still seem to feel a lot each other, in which your feelings are even more plainly, but non of you says anything! Why don´t you confess and... do these adult things in real life?"

"Nikki, I don´t want to insult you, but did you ever hear about this frickin' fraternization rule?!"

"It´s not hard to break it if your heart is willing to take the risk. You just need to stop thinking, Kate!"

"Nikki, I am extremely tired, could you please stop with this nonsense?"

"Okay, X, but don´t come to me complaining about your lonely shore leaves."

Kate lay down and turned on her side. She was happy that Nikki had stopped talking about this whole Mike-thing because she hated it when someone else was right concerning her love life. Being honest to herself she had to admit that it had must have been a hundred times that she was standing in front of his cabin, thinking about entering and kissing this man like her life would depend from it. But she did not do that and the career-Kate inside her was happy about that, but the girly-Kate was lying on the floor, crying over her heart that she herself was breaking. Well, Kate thought, maybe tomorrow I will have the guts to tell him... who knows. But for the moment, dreaming had to be enough. She closed her eyes and hoped that she could be able to return to the point where her dream had stopped, this time hopefully without audible sounds...

Told ya it would be crazy... And maybe I will add some more short stories to this night, if you want...


	2. Nikki and Buffer

So, here is my next idea and luckily I had some flash idea involving every crew member, so there will be some more chapters to follow! I hope you enjoy the story and leave me some reviews, I am always happy to get some feedback :)

* * *

Nikki snuggled herself back into her blanket, a amused smile playing around her lips. If she ever needed something to use against Kate, she had some good stuff now. She closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep again, but suddenly Kate started to sigh again, moving under her blanket noisily.

"This is not cool... Does she think she is the only woman being frustrated?!", Nikki murmured to herself and pressed a little button on her watch to enlighten the clock-face. She still had two hours left until she had to take over the watch on the bridge from Buffer, but she already suspected that she would not be able to sleep any more with Kate having her weird dreams. She had a hard time trying to avoid the head cinema about the scenes that Kate was possibly dreaming of. The navigator decided to get up and join Buffer on the bridge, so she at least had somebody to talk who was not dreaming about making out with the CO while sleeping in the rack underneath hers.

After Nikki had dressed up in her uniform she quietly left the cabin she shared with Kate. After a quick stop at the galley to fetch two cups of hot coffee she climbed up the stairs to the bridge.

* * *

Buffer was seated in the captains chair and turned around as he heard her coming, flipping over something that was located in his lap and returned the smile that Nikki shot at him.

"I always knew you are able to read my mind!", he grinned as he took the mug from her hands, then looked at his watch. "But you´re two hours in front of the time! Everything okay?"

Nikki took a sip of her brew, then she answered:"I could not sleep any more, X is a bit noisily in her sleep... I nearly fell out of my rack when I first heard her."

"Seems to be something serious. Tell me, it´s only us two here. Additionally I am a good secret keeper!"

"I know", Nikki smiled and thought about her options. She knew that Buffer was not that heavily involved in the ships gossip, but if alcohol was involved he used to get a bit unreliable. On the other hand, she just needed someone to gossip with.

"Well, I awoke because I heard some strange noises and then I realised that she must have some adult dream because she moaned a... certain name and so on..."

She felt her cheeks flushing a bit, but grinned and took another sip from her coffee. Buffer chuckled and said:"I always asked myself how long it would take her to reach the state of the wet dreams!"

Nikki nearly choked on the hot liquid and some of it ran down her chin as she had to cough a few times from the shock.

"What?"

"You honestly believe you are the only one who knows she is still in love with the boss?! Nikki, I may be a guy, but I am not dumb."

He smiled at the still surprised and shocked navigator and wiped the coffee away. Her cheeks just reddened some more and she stuttered:"I...I did not think you were not able to see signs of that, I just thought that only a woman could see that she is in love with the boss, as she is good at hiding her feelings most of the time... Even when he was shot!"

She placed her mug on a console and took a deep breath, before she exclaimed:"Well, this... you always learn something new... well... the point is... it was traumatizing. And how was your evening?"

"Quite... 2Dads tried to play a prank on me, but otherwise it was nice. And now that you are joining me it got much better."

Buffer controlled the instruments that glowed green in the dim light of the bridge and Nikki had some time to check what he had been "hiding" from her when she had entered the bridge.

"What is this?", she asked and took the thing that seemed to be a scribbling pad. As she noticed Buffer´s reaction, containing a lickety-split attempt to get the pad back, she made a huge step backwards while flipping the first page.

"Is this your diary, you little girl or why are you acting like this?", she grinned and turned to the next page as the one she had just opened was blank. As she looked on the paper she burst out into a loud laugh that shook her whole body. Buffer bit on his lip, but did not start other efforts to take the pad from her.

"I know, it´s horrible..."

"Noo! Buff, this is great! This is 2Dads, right? You did caricature 2Dads!", Nikki laughed, flipped to the next page and her laugh increased once more. Buffer started to smile, but walked closer to her with the words:"I am glad you like them, but now I need this back!"

"No, not yet, I want to see some more, I want to see how you did draw me!", the navigator giggled, showing a jollity that had been extremely rare since ET´s death, but as she looked at the next drawing the smile disappeared, like it had been washed away by the blue ocean waves. Buffer swallowed hard and wished he had never taken the pad with him on the bridge. He should have noticed the danger behind that when 2Dads had nearly discovered the drawing Nikki was looking at. But then he had realised that his watch would be more than boring and that he needed something to help him to get the hours around.

"Nikki... This was just some... some scribbling, nothing that was meant to offend you..."

He was kind of afraid when she slowly turned her head to look at him and because of his expectations the reality hit him even harder. Tears were shimmering in Nikki´s eyes and a shy smile claimed her lineaments.

"This... this looks beautiful, Buff, but why..."

She released the scrabbling pad from her hands as Pete took it from her, the portrait that showed her face that had been captured by a free, happy smile.

"It was a rare moment of you being the old Nikki and I just wanted to capture this moment because... I had feared you lost your smile... It is to lovely to get lost."

Her emotions overwhelmed her and a few tears left her eyes as she had to blink and made their way down her cheeks. Pete softly wiped them away with the back of his hand and she whispered:"This... this is really sweet... thank you..."

She eagerly melted into his arms as he pulled her into a comforting embrace. Pete felt his heart jump in ecstasy and he planted a kiss on her dark hair.

"This is what friends are there for...", he faintly told her. How gladly he would have kissed her, showed her how much he felt for her, but he knew he would destroy their friendship. She was still fragile, mourning over ET and he wanted to give his best to make her feel better, always hoping for the tiny bit of a chance that one day, she would be ready to have a relationship again. He would wait until this day, not rushing things, and draw some more pictures of the smile he loved the most in the whole world.

* * *

Oh my gosh, this turned out to be more kitschy then I intended... But I hope it´s still readable ^^


	3. Ro, 2Dads, Charge and Swain

So, this is the third chapter and I kinda have the feeling that this will be the one with the most random content... ^^

* * *

Robert Dixon normally did not have any issues to fall asleep. He could just lay down into his rack, pull up the blanket, close his eyes and drift away into dream land almost immediately. He rarely had those kind of thoughts that keep you up all night or dreams that make you wake up in the middle of the night, covered in sweat. No, he always had experienced wonderful sleep.

But not tonight.

Robert tossed from one side to the other, tried to sleep while laying on his back, on both sides, on the belly, stretched out or rolled up like a cat. He engaged to clear his mind, but then he had to think about not to think and the ominous counting of sheep did not work that well, too.

However, what ever he tried, he just could not sleep. This made him a bit unsettled and finally he got up, after he had been able to have a short nap from which he had roughly pulled out by a dream about him transforming into a flamingo. He slipped some training pants over his boxers and left the cabin, wondering where his room mate was. 2Dads normally never let a chance to hang around pass by, let alone to sleep. But strangely he was not there.

"This is some crazy evening...", Robert murmured to himself as he zipped up his hoodie and left the cabin. He hoped a short walk around the hallways would make him tired enough to find some normal sleep.

* * *

He passed the Junior Sailor Mess as he heard something slamming on the floor and people laughing. Normally, Robert had just passed by, he usually did not care that much about the childish things that his comrades did, but as he had already recognized that this was no ordinary evening, he decided that it would do him no harm to look what was happening inside. So he opened the door and he could not believe what he saw. He had to blink a few times until he was sure he was not dreaming about the scene that took place in front of him.

2Dads and Charge were standing on a twister mat or rather 2Dads was standing over Charge who was lying on his stomach, Swain was sitting on the bench, the turntable in front of him. It seemed like Robert had heard him hit the floor when he had been in front of the door. Charge sighed while 2Dads grinned:"Well, that´s another win for me!"

"After all, this is some training with fun", Charge murmured and took the hand 2Dads offered him to help him to get back to his feet.

"What are you doing here?", Robert asked and everyone´s eyes were on him, not only because of his sudden appearance but also because of his question. It was not something they were used to hear from Robert, his questions were always very precise, no unnecessary things containing his thoughts and he had never asked about things that were obvious.

"Are you blind? We are playing twister!", 2Dads laughed. "Come in and close the door or leave! Swain, it´s your turn."

"Wait, I mean, WHY are you doing that?", Robert wanted to know while he closed the door behind him.

Swain got up from the bench and handed Charge the turntable, while he answered:"By coincidence we all met here, it seems like none of us were able to sleep tonight. And then 2Dads had the idea to play some games as we had nothing better to do! Come on, join us!"

"No way!"

"Come on mate, this is no ordinary night, Ro! So you could just join in, we won´t tell anybody!"

Ro took a deep breath and then shook the head in disbelief about what he was going to do next:"Okay, but you need to swear this won´t leave the room!"

"It won´t, as it would expose us too!", 2Dads grinned and rubbed his hands together while Ro took his sweater off. "Okay, show us what you got, Ro!"

"I´ll beat ya!", Robert grumbled and stepped on the mat as Charge started to turn the pointer.

"Combatants, right foot on green!"

"Yes, sir!", Leo saluted wishy-washy and they followed Charge´s instruction.

* * *

"Give up, Ro, you don´t have any chance!"

"Never ever, 2Dads!", hissed Robert and returned the glare that Leo shot at him. They were still playing, but in the mean time Swain gave up due to a cramp in his leg, but 2Dads and Robert were still in the game, none of them two willing to give up and let the other one win. They were both fighting to hold their oddly positions, arms and legs slightly shivering because of the tension.

"Swain, I fear this won´t find an end...", Charge moaned, laying back on the bench. He slowly felt a bit bored because he had nothing to do, but additionally he could sense a tiny bit of sleepiness in the back of his mind.

"You know... how this... game works", Leo pressed through his lips. "It ends... when... one falls!"

"A...agreed!", Robert answered and gritted his teeth to fight the pain in his muscles. Charge rolled his eyes and sighed and Swain gave him a confirmatory look. Robert and Leo had some problems with each other from time to time and this seemed to be their way to battle it out. Suddenly, Swain had a good idea to solve this:"Guys... do you know this saying "The wiser head gives in"? The one who see´s the sense in this and gives up, would be the real winner!"

Immediately Robert and 2Dads looked at each other, surprised, measured...

WAMM!

Swain and Charge started to laugh as Leo and Robert synchronously hit the floor, screaming "First!", both having awkward expressions on their face.

"Damn it..."

"Ooouch, my arms..."

"Thank you for this enjoyable view, gentlemen! I think I will go to sleep now!", Charge grinned and rose from the bench. Swain followed him just after a few seconds and they left the two junior sailors on the floor as they still recovered from the game.

"Now I know why I hated this game as a child...", Robert groaned and kneaded his arms. Leo shot a ironic look at him and grinned:"Me too... Wait - you had friends?"

"Muggins! I had a lot of friends! I still have! I thought you were the one who was lonesome because you strained everyone´s nerves!"

Leo hesitated for a few seconds, sat up and folded his arms in front of his chest.

"Robert – this night was nice but I think we still don´t like each other..."

"I guess you heard this more then once in your life!", Robert countered and they suddenly both started to laugh. Leo patted his comrades arm before he stood up.

"This night is crazy... damned full moon! It seems like we all have a odd night, everybody a bit off."

"Agreed", Robert nodded. "I hope you agree about keeping quiet on what happened tonight."

"Yeah, I am alright with that!"

"Good... let´s go to bed then... I hope this little game helped a lot to make me sleepy."

"After you, cabin mate."

"No, after you!"

* * *

I have to admit, the ending seems rubbish to me O.o I can´t help... Leave me a comment about your thoughts, maybe about what could have been better :)


	4. Bomber and Spider

Next one, I hope you like it, leave your opinion :)

* * *

Bomber sensed her mind wandering around as she lay on her back, deeply snuggled into her blanket, wide awake and was listening to the familiar noises of the ship. She was more then used to the small rocking movements and the monotone sound of the machine´s as the Hammersley drove through the ocean. She felt save when she was on the ship, the waves softly swinging her into sleep.

But tonight, she felt kind of paranoid. Bomber had never been the type of girl that got scared very fast, she had always been more fearless then her friends, her dad had never needed to look for monsters under her bed. Unfortunately, she felt like if she´d lost her ability to face everything - she seemed to hear voices from the bathroom and steps or knocks from the walls and she did catch herself more than once in the process of checking the small cabin, her eyes extensively searching the dark area under her desk. She even had switched on her bedside lamp! While she watched the door, she pushed the thought of locking it away, trying to remember what caused her to get to this point. It did take her only a few seconds to recall on the person responsible for it.

"Spider", she grumbled with a dark look on her face.

She had asked him for a good movie to watch as she had been bored after cleaning the galley this evening. She had not known that he wanted to play a prank on her, but now, afterwards, she should have suspected this, regarding the fact that she had told him that she did not like horror movies. His grin had not given her a clue of his plan then.

"Little bastard", she hissed as she got up from her rack, her blanket tightly wrapped around herself. The one he had given to her had started out like a normal movie, but 30 minutes into it she had slowly come to the realization that he had foisted her a grown thriller – no blood or axe-swinging murders with hockey masks – but still something that had managed to make her jump off her chair. The sounds alone had made her heart stop and then rush again and sometimes her stomach twisted so hard that she had thought she needed to vomit – let alone that creepy little girl that had turned out to be a grown woman that was completely crazy.

"Bloody idiot, if I get hold of you..."

She pulled some hoodie over her tank top and let go of her blanket. She shivered by the thought of the dark scenery of the movie and her fear did not get any better as she entered the hallway that was dipped into the ordinary red night lights – nothing that helped her heart from pounding like hell. Slowly she walked towards the galley, eavesdropping for any suspicious noises and she sometimes even turned to watch if any crazy one was going to take her down.

But nothing like this happened and she safely reached her galley. A short look was enough for her to know that Charge had once again not been able to stick to his diet plan and she could just shake her head. She would tell Buffer about that, but not tonight. Bomber was just thinking about which tea would help her sleep, as she heard steps coming closer. She panicked and looked around, searching for some place to hide, but then she saw the knife block and quickly she pulled out the largest of the knives and faced the door as the steps stopped in front of it, then it was pushed open.

* * *

"OH MY... put that freakin' knife down or do you want to kill me?!", Spider screamed in a nearly girlish intonation and a plastic bowl with pudding slipped from his hand while his terrified reaction when he first saw Bomber and the big knife in her hand.

"I should do that, as you are mentioning it! Bastard, this damn movie scared the hell out of me! I am paranoid thanks to you!"

"Oh Becs, are you kidding me? It can´t be that bad, you´re a grown woman and your nickname is Bomber! It is just a movie!"

"Just a movie? That was sheer terror!", Bomber murmured with a scared look on her face as she put the knife back to the place it belonged to. She took a deep breath and they both looked to pudding-covered floor.

"Great. I won´t clean this!"

She crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked at him, waiting, channeling her accusation through her gaze. Spider gulped and quickly grabbed some paper towels to clean the floor. He was scared and surprised in the same moment as he wiped the pudding away, sternly observed by Bomber while doing this. Scared because of her gaze and immediately surprised by her indigestibility against scaring movies. She was Bomber, the woman who kicked everyone´s ass when they made nasty comments, the one the guys could not play a prank on without getting an appropriate revenge. He had never seen her scared, at least not heavily scared, but her panicked reaction as he had entered the galley and her overall behavior made him believe that she really was not acting. Immediately he felt sorry, particularly as he saw how she had to hold back tears.

"Did you have your fun?! I hope you enjoyed it!"

He hurried to get up and grabbed her hands, swearing:"I am so sorry, Bomb! I did not know that you are so thin-skinned... That definitely was not my intention! I swear I will do everything..."

She wiped some tears away and ere she could do anything Spider had pulled her into his arms. He did not know what else he should do and he hoped he could make her feel better. Bomber welcomed his embrace, as it showed her he did not wanted to be mean. She suspected that he was asking himself why she was so sensitive concerning scary movies and decided to tell him.

"I have been scared by ugly noises since I was a toddler and my brother used to make fun of it, dressing himself as a monster more often to scare me and he still did this when I was a teenager... I am scared of things I can´t explain to myself and there were many incidents that were not caused by my brother, so I just could not let go of this fear. I was not confronted with something like this in the years after I joined the navy, so..."

"...my movie caused you to get back to old habits. I am really sorry, Bomb! But you also scared me! Did you always grab a knife when you heard strange noises?"

"Sometimes. And how do you wan´t to make it better?"

"I already have something in mind!", Spider grinned and led her out of her galley.

* * *

Spider smiled as he felt Bomber´s regular breathing against his chest, giving him a clear sign that she was asleep. After placing a gentle kiss on her hair, he snapped her laptop shut and placed it on the floor next to her rack. He was glad that he had just been able to erase his fault and help her to sleep peacefully. Tempted to stay her pillow as he felt comfortable with her snuggled against him, he savored every second, until he finally got up, carefully shoving her on the mattress. A bright grin captured his face as he watched back before he left the room.

Barbie movies always helped for every woman of any age.


	5. Kate and Mike

So, here is the last chapter, I hope you enjoy it and leave me some reviews :)

* * *

"Mike..."

Kate was ripped out of her sleep, not for the first time this night, and tried to slow her breathing down. She had never experienced such a flood of pictures in her sleep – it was like Mike Flynn was haunting her dreams and would not let go of her tonight.

Exhausted from tossing over again and again in her sleep she got up from her rack and went into the small bathroom to splash some water into her face. Her blonde hair was a mess and she tried to fix it at least a little bit and watched her reflexion in the mirror.

How did it happen that she had reached this point? She had never built her life around a man, she always had been far to concentrated on her career – but now she was standing here and was not able to stop thinking about how much she wanted, loved her CO. After he broke up with her, she had been kind of fine, she had successfully told herself that this affair had meant nothing to her, that it had been a small attraction, but in the past 2 years she had slowly realized that she had lied to herself. With every day her feelings had grown stronger and she had also a hard time in hiding them when they were on the 'Hammersley'.

"Damn..."

Her problem was that she did not know what she should be doing about this, even with the need for action in the back of her mind. It was wicked. Should she talk with him? It could make things worse, but there also was the possibility that he would free her from damned to love him from far away. Was the risk worth it? She was not able to come to a clear answer, nothing that was usual for her, as she normally was able to make quick, precise decisions.

She slowly walked through the abandoned hallways as if she waited for someone to come who was stopping her from what she was about to do. It would have been enough to meet a crew member, she would have turned around, but there was not a soul in sight.

"I can´t believe I am really doing this...", she sighed to herself as she reached the CO´s cabin. She felt her heart pounding hard in her chest and her hands were slightly shaking as she was about to knock, but a strange sound, like a sob, from inside made her stop. Seconds later, the curiosity caused her to open the door a little bit without knocking and she would have never expected what she saw next.

* * *

"Noo... why are you doing this...", Mike whined into his tissue. "You idiot, why are you leaving her if you love her so much?! You idiot!"

He shook his head in disbelief and reached for a big piece of chocolate from the packet that lay next to his tissue box and the laptop, on which a movie was running.

"One does not leave the woman of his dreams... we were both not really clever...", he sniffed as the male principal actor found out that his love had found another guy after he left her and drowned in self-pity now while she prepared her wedding.

Kate did not know what to do as she watched Mike in a situation she had never seen him in before, one she had never ever imagined for him to ever be in. His voice had been filled with so much pain and grief and he was truly starting to cry. Tears rolled down his cheeks and he made no effort to wipe them away. Kate swallowed hard and before she knew what was happening, her body started to move on its own. She entered the cabin and closed the door behind herself, then she approached Mike´s bunk on which he was seated. She sat down next to him and took his hand from his lap, carefully caressing his fingers. He turned his head and his wet eyes widened in surprise as he saw who was there.

"Kate... I... I am so sorry... It was my fault... I... I should not have left you... It was so wrong..."

She did not know what to say and so they were just sitting there, holding hands and remained silent. Kate felt her heart race and she could not stop thinking about his words. Since he had left her so suddenly she had thought that he had never been seriously in love with her, but his behavior right now showed her the complete opposite.

"Kate... I... there is no way I could erase this fault..."

They both felt extremely overwhelmed by this situation, it was full of unspoken emotions that had been held in captivity for a really long time, what build up a certain tension between them. Their fingers were making the only moves, entwining, caressing each other and their eyes were locked to each others. None of them knew how to act properly, but after some time Kate raised her free hand and gently stroke the wet traces away from Mike´s cheeks. Her hand rested there as she suddenly was not able to remove it and he made sure that she did not let go of him through placing his hand over hers. She felt her whole body prickle as his gaze grew more intense and his grip on her became more tighter, but still was careful and soft.

"I will never leave you again, Katie!", Mike sobbed with a low voice and placed a gentle kiss on the back of her hand, his words making her shiver. She gulped and took a deep breath, fighting her own need to cry.

"I know...", she whispered after some time and gave him a small smile. He returned her smile with tears shimmering in his eyes, but he still looked happy. Slowly, nearly hesitantly, he came closer and finally their lips touched, only for a brief moment, but it was enough for Kate´s heart to skip a beat.

"We... we could try...", Mike breathed with a hopeful tone in his voice. "It... it could work if we just... don´t rush anything... Just... just going through this whole date thing as long as we want, u-until we feel save..."

"Taking it slow...", Kate murmured more to herself and thought about his offer. Her heart had already started to scream 'Yes!' when he had said the word 'try', but her head was still working on the problem. After all, she was still focused on her career and she had always left her private life behind, she knew of how much she could be capable in her career and she had always worked hard to achieve it. But now she began to question the rightness of her attitude as she saw the love and hope in Mike´s eyes and the knowledge that he was willing to do everything to get her back was making her feel warm. Maybe it was a really good idea, just dating, no obligations, and just seeing where their relationship would go. She swallowed hard and smiled at him as she answered:"That´s... that´s a good idea..."

Mike chuckled in relief and asked:"Kate McGregor, do you want to date me?"

"Yes, I would love to."

His sadness from the beginning had been wiped away and he leaned in to give her a light, even shy kiss. Kate welcomed his arms as he gently wrapped them around her and cuddled herself to his chest. They both hoped that the date-thing would work out for them as they both did not wanted to loose each other again.

* * *

This night had started with some strange events, but it had turned to have some outcomes that changed the situations between the people on the ship and made some futures look brighter.

THE END

* * *

Sorry, once again a ending I am not happy with ^^


End file.
